Gilded Age San Francisco

I have taken a duplicate of the list in order that future posterity may know something of the personnel of the roster of luminaries who assist in the great work of moulding public sentiment in the metropolitan center of the coast at this enlightened period of pugilism, gaudy deportment and straight-laced etiquette. The numerous “Clubs” may after all ultimately achieve the distinction which the name might seem to indicate. This is evident from the somewhat refreshing and suggestive expose that the Robison-Robertson clash of pens has evolved.

“A Tempest in a Tea-pot”

EDITOR REGISTER: - I am perhaps one of the oldest journalists on the Pacific coast, having been an editor as far back as 1854, and with the exception of a portion of the war period, almost continuously in service ever since. I am not a society man in the modern acceptation of that term, but was fortunate enough a few days ago to obtain from a friend the loan of a volume entitled, “The San Francisco Blue Book,” in the pages of which I discovered a list of the great lights that control the metropolitan press. 

I have taken a duplicate of the list in order that future posterity may know something of the personnel of the roster of luminaries who assist in the great work of moulding public sentiment in the metropolitan center of the coast at this enlightened period of pugilism, gaudy deportment and straight-laced etiquette. The numerous “Clubs” may after all ultimately achieve the distinction which the name might seem to indicate. This is evident from the somewhat refreshing and suggestive expose that the Robison-Robertson clash of pens has evolved. 

“NOTE. The Italics designate the Reception Day, the Bold-Faced Type, the Country Residence”

Now if a duel could only be properly scented as on the tapis as one of the results of this intercine conflict in the classic realm of the “Plug-Hat and Swallow-Tail Brigade,” then Mr. Isaac could complacently fold his arms and serenely contemplate the untoward results of the innocent machinations of a “rough diamond.” Would that the spirit of Horace Greeley could be invoked at this critical juncture to diffuse balm (I don't mean DuBarry Balm) upon this perturbed surface in the excited domain of Bohemia. Verily a crisis has come. What will Ambrose Bierce say? 

If Murat Halstead, Joe McCullah and Stilson Hutchins were here, how they would enjoy the fun! The dudes are seemingly on top as yet, but their sceptre is trembling in the scale and may yet go down before the avenging wrath that common sense and plain home- spun have dared to assert in this very peculiar conflict. So mote it be. — CAPSICUM, San Francisco, June 22, 1889 

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